Re: Cetartiodactyla (was Re: Cladistic taxonomy (was Dietary factors))

["Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@lycos.com>]

On Wed, 9 May 2001 19:55:24   
 Jaime A. Headden wrote:
>Watch out, I'm griping again.
>
>Ken Kinman (kinman@hotmail.com) wrote:
>
><That sounds very interesting.  I recognize a separate Order 
>Mesonychiformes, so no matter how it and artiodactyls and
>cetaceans are interrelated, I will be able to reflect it in my
>classifications without having to change the contents of any of
>these three orders.>
>
>  Except that Mesonychia itself has been suggested to be
>paraphyletic, in the same analyses that suggested they were not
>ancestral to whales, and one other (sorry, I don't have the
>paper, but I can dig up the cite....). Making up a
>"Mesonychiformes" is irrelevant.

Do you have a citation for the paper in which it was suggested that Mesonychia 
was not ancestral to whales?  I always understood that whales evolved from 
mesonychids.  Is it a prevaling view that this is not the case, or is it a 
minority opinion?

Steve

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